


Run Down

by Sholio



Category: Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Hypothermia, Naked Cuddling, Shivering, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 04:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21113012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Danny overdoes it with the Iron Fist. Set between seasons.





	Run Down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sheron](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheron/gifts).

> For a request for the Trembling prompt with Danny, Colleen, & Claire.

The door of the dojo was, as Colleen had said in her frantic texts, unlocked. Claire let herself in after her knocks went unanswered.

"Colleen?" she called, picking her way around construction debris and plastic sheeting. She knew they were doing renovations to turn the place into less of a business and more of a home, but hadn't anticipated the level of destruction. It looked like they'd ripped out every interior wall.

"Back here!" Colleen's voice filtered back from somewhere beyond a plastic-sheeted frame that was probably going to be a new wall eventually. Claire pushed her way past the draped sheeting and found herself in an unexpectedly cozy bedroom, with a queen-sized bed and lamps illuminating walls that had been partly painted a warm gold.

"Oh, thank you, thank you," Colleen said, crawling out of a nest of blankets on the bed; she was wearing sleeping shorts and a T-shirt, and nothing else. Claire could just see the top of Danny's head, a mess of sweat-damp curls, and when she reached out and put a hand on the blanket-wrapped bundle of Danny, she felt his violent shivering. "Claire, I'm so sorry to call you; he's just so _cold,_ and I can't warm him up --"

"What's wrong with him?" Claire asked, pulling back the blanket to reveal Danny's pale face. "Where is he hurt?" 

Just from touching him she could tell he was mildly hypothermic, which was, to say the least, not something that you expected to find in New York in June. She pressed her fingertips against his carotid and counted against her watch while still tuning in to Colleen's explanation; it was the sort of skill that nurses picked up. Except it sounded like Colleen had said ...

"Did you just say 'chi depletion' to me?"

"Well, it's what's wrong," Colleen said defensively, folding her arms.

"Colleen!" Claire protested, looking up at her. "I can't fix that! Literally all I know about any of this is from a handful of library books on reiki and acupuncture, and I only read _those_ because you people keep bringing me things like _this!"_

"I _know!"_ Colleen said, and the defensive facade pulled back to show what Claire suspected was only a fraction of her desperation. "But I didn't know what else to do! I can't fix this, Claire. I don't know how to help him. He's got to recharge himself. And I thought, well -- you're a nurse, you've got to know something that'll help, right?"

Claire let out a sigh and looked down at Danny. He was so out of it that he didn't seem to be consciously aware of her, but he turned trustingly toward her anyway, rolling against her knees, where she could feel him shaking as if he'd fly apart. _Why are you both like this,_ she thought wearily, and then she looked up at Colleen, who had relaxed out of her guarded stance and was clasping her hands together, naked pleading on her face.

"All right, fine," Claire said, capitulating to the crazy. "I don't know either, but let's start by treating the symptoms. We need to warm him up. You got a working bathroom in here? Preferably with a tub?"

"Er ... there's a shower?"

The bathroom was clearly under renovation as well -- there _was_ a tub, but it was off to the side, with a flimsy plastic shower enclosure in a larger space that the tub was probably going to occupy. Claire helped Colleen manhandle Danny's limp, shivering frame into the shower enclosure. At least he wasn't that big, she couldn't help thinking; she really wouldn't have wanted to do this with Luke or even Matt. Danny was barefoot, in sweatpants and a hoodie. At Claire's direction, Colleen began stripping him, starting with the hoodie. It wasn't like Claire had never seen him half-naked before, but there was still something a little painful about seeing someone that age with that many scars. Not to mention the weird-ass "I punched a dragon" tattoo.

"Get the shower warm enough to be comfortable but not too hot, and keep him under it," Claire ordered. "I'll come back to help towel off in, oh, twenty minutes or so. In the meantime I'm going to get some things ready. Do you have any candy in the house?"

Colleen looked blank.

"Sugar? Anything sweet? And I don't mean artificial sweetener. What's happening to him could be caused partly by hypoglycemia. If you don't, I'll run down the street and get some."

"Uh, no," Colleen said, "no need, there's sugar for tea in the kitchen."

Hot sweet tea sounded perfect. "Just one question, then," Claire said. ".... Where's the kitchen?"

Behind more plastic sheeting, as it turned out. At the moment it consisted largely of framed-in counters and cabinets with no tops on yet, but there was also a working fridge, some boxes containing various spices and baking supplies (including the promised sugar and about 20 kinds of tea), and a hot water pot. Claire had to go into the bathroom to fill the water pot anyway, so she brought a teaspoonful of sugar with her. 

"Feed this to him," she said, cracking the shower enclosure open wide enough to hand it in.

"Just the sugar?" Colleen said dubiously.

"If he's on the verge of a hypoglycemic coma, you'll be glad you did."

She left Colleen to it, plugged in the kettle, and went to see what they had in the way of blankets. It looked like most of them were already on the bed, but who knew how they found anything in here; they could own a million blankets and hot water bottles, and she wouldn't be able to locate any of them in all the construction mess. What they did have was a large bag of rice, so Claire found two clean socks in what was apparently their underwear box, filled each with rice and tied it off, and heated it up in the microwave. (She'd had a roommate in nursing school who'd introduced her to what her roommate had called the "Hot Sock Fulla Rice." Very useful for sore muscles after long shifts, and in this case, a decent substitute for the hot water bottles they didn't seem to have.)

By then the hot shower was probably reaching the point of diminishing returns. "Where are your towels?" Claire called through the shower enclosure door, and Colleen pointed her to them, and then she helped Colleen towel off Danny and get him into bed. Colleen slithered in after him, which Claire hadn't said anything about but figured could only help. She went and got two mugs of hot tea, one of them liberally doctored with sugar, the other with the smidge that she'd seen Colleen put in at their lunches.

Danny was deeply groggy, but they got him to sit up and drink the entire mug of tea, and then Colleen nestled down with him in the blankets again. She twisted around onto her back so she could hold the mug Claire had brought for her.

"How's he feel now?" Claire asked.

"Warmer." Colleen smiled. She looked sleepy herself; from the bruise on her cheek, she'd had a busy day too, and she had just gotten out of a hot shower, so it was only to be expected. "Thanks. You're a great friend, Claire."

"Normally I end one of these delightful evenings by saying that you can thank me by not doing it again, but by this point I know it doesn't help and I can't even imagine what you two were doing to get him into this state in the first place."

"The Hand --" Colleen began.

"No, no, that wasn't a request for an explanation. Please don't tell me."

Colleen freed a hand from the tea mug to reach out and squeeze Claire's arm. "Then just let me tell you that you're a wonderful friend and we're lucky to have you. Thanks for coming down."

"At least I will give you two this," Claire said, starting to pack up the medical supplies she hadn't had to use. "Visits to you are usually more interesting than the standard 'please stitch up my bleeding forehead' sort of thing. Keeps me on my toes, and all that." She reached out to rescue the mug from Colleen's slipping grasp.

"Oh. Um. Thanks." Colleen yawned. "Look, you don't have to just run off. I'll be out of bed in a minute ..."

"No you won't. From the look of you, the best place you can be is right there with him. Nurse's orders."

"Okay, but ..." Colleen yawned again before pushing herself up on her elbows. "At least let us pay your cab fare uptown. Danny's wallet is ... uh ... in his pants, probably. Which are over there. Take whatever you need. You know he's ..."

"Loaded? Yeah, it hadn't escaped my notice."

"I _really_ owe you one. Lunch tomorrow. On me." She slithered down under the blankets.

"Yeah, fair enough. Call me if he takes a turn, okay?"

"Mmm," was the response, before Colleen rallied for, "Yes. Text you in the morning about lunch?"

"Gotcha."

Claire stood up, reaching for her medical bag, and looked down at the two of them. Truth was, she really didn't mind being called out by these two, at least less than some other people in her life. They left her feeling good, even when she had to come out for some kind of dumbass reason like this.

"Sleep tight," she murmured, and locked the door on her way out, to keep out any stray ninja assassins who might be lurking about.


End file.
